Issue #59: Fall in Love with Being Alone

Plus my favorite solo meal-planning tip.

Morning Person is a weekly newsletter packed with obsessively-curated recommendations and ideas—let’s get to it!

📚 Making a Scene by Constance Wu and I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jeanette Curdy: In 2019, actress Constance Wu fired off a Tweet that nearly got her cancelled. When her show “Fresh Off the Boat” was renewed, she wrote “so upset right now I’m literally crying. Ugh.” She was expressing frustration over her contractual obligation to stay with the show, rather than pursue film opportunities post-‘Crazy Rich Asians,’ but her words dripped in privilege that many (pretty much anyone without a hit ABC show) found insensitive. Both Wu and Jennette Curdy vulnerably explore the impact of making mistakes and growing up in the limelight of Hollywood in their respective memoirs. Wu writes openly about her attempt to take her own life following the Tweet, while Curdy recounts the eating disorder and, later, struggles with substance abuse she experienced as a result of being a child actor with an overbearing (to say the least) mom. Although both books explore heavy topics (Hollywood, it turns out, is not all that dazzling off the red carpet), they were a welcome respite from the doorstopper of a novel I needed a quick break from.

📺 “The Resort” on Peacock: It’s clear that something is broken in Emma (Cristin Milioti) and Noah’s (William Jackson Harper) marriage when they travel to a Mexican resort for their tenth wedding anniversary. She types into Google, tipsy one evening, “How do I know if I should leave my relationship?” A tragic root cause is revealed as the series unfolds—as is a murder mystery that punches up the “White Lotus”-y series. When Emma discovers a broken flip phone in the jungle, she quickly connects it to the disappearance of a resort guest. The show proceeds in flashbacks with touches of magical realism reminiscent of the director’s last feature, Palm Springs. The finale came out last month, so now is the perfect time to binge the full show!